Gas industry attempted to block 'Gasland' from Oscars

You know a documentary is hitting home when the very industry its targeting starts to appear desperate.

Details came to light early this week that Lee Fuller, executive director of pro-drilling group Energy in Depth, wrote the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences asking for them to reconsider the film's eligibility.

Fuller described the doc as an "expression of stylized fiction" with "errors, inconsistencies and outright falsehoods." He asked the Academy to immediately take "remedial action" against the film.

Their response? It's up to members to decide for themselves the accuracy of the picture.

"We do not have the resources to vet each claim or implication in the many (documentary) films that compete for our awards each year, and even if we did there would be no shortage of people disputing our conclusions," wrote the Academy's executive director Bruce Davis.

He added, "If facts have been suppressed or distorted, if truth has been twisted, we depend on (our members) to sniff that out and vote accordingly."

According to director Josh Fox, such attacks like this only help to promote the message contained in the film. "I think it works against them," he told The Canadian Press. "But I think it shows how aggressive they are, how bullying they are, and how willing they are to lie to promote the falsehood that it's OK to live in a gas drilling area."

Whether "Gasland" wins tomorrow night or not, expect the issue to be front and center thanks to actors supporting the film. Mark Ruffalo, and potentially some other nominees, will be wearing a blue water droplet pin as a way of bringing attention to natural gas hydro-fracking.

The pin is an initiative of WaterDefense, a campaign to protect our drinking water from extreme methods used to extract fossil fuels.

“Water is our most treasured resource. It’s the most basic element of life and not having access to clean and safe water changes everything,” said Ruffalo in a statement.

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